Addis Ababa, November 12, 2021(Walta) – The report by Reuters claiming that the State of Emergency (SOE) proclamation compels citizens to hold ID cards that disclose their ethnicity is misleading and misrepresents the requirements of the State of Emergency (SoE), Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check stated.
The SoE allows citizens to make use of various alternatives identity documents including driver’s license, employment ID cards, and national passports.
None of these documents include the ethnicity of their bearer. Furthermore, in the past three years, (i.e. since the coming into office of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed) most municipalities that used to include ethnic identity in residence ID cards have discontinued this practice.
The fact that Reuters failed to take these obvious facts into account shows at best a great dereliction of duty on the part of those who wrote and edited the story, the Fact Check platform added.